Since Antiquity,
yawning has held as little interest for
philosophers, psychologists and
physiologists, as it has for teachers,
moralists and physicians. And yet, few things
are as common as yawning. Everyone yawns 5 to
10 times a day. Yawning is a recognized
behaviour in almost all vertebrates from
birds to humans, one which starts in the womb
and continues until death. Although yawning
often procures a sense of well-being for the
yawner, attempting to mask this behaviour is
worldwild usual practice.
Since Antiquity, yawning has held as
little interest for philosophers,
psychologists and physiologists, as it has
for teachers, moralists and physicians. And
yet, few things are as common as yawning.
Everyone yawns 5 to 10 times a day. Yawning
is a recognized behaviour in almost all
vertebrates from birds to humans, one which
starts in the womb and continues until death.
Although yawning often procures a sense of
well-being for the yawner, attempting to mask
this behaviour is worldwild usual
practice.
Modern neuroscience is still looking for
a complete explanation of its intimate
mechanisms. But above all, its exact
physiological purpose remains a subject of
debate; some see yawning as a mechanism for
stimulating wakefulness [1], while
others contest this view and instead link
yawing to sleepiness, but do not provide
evidence for an arousing effect of yawning
[2].
In this paper; we offer a broad-based
cultural overview of the related conceptions
and myths through comparison of the popular
views of Arabic, Western and Indian
cultures.
Arab countries
In 1921, Pierre Saintyves surveyed
cultural beliefs related to the meaning of
yawning. According to Saintyves, Islam sees
yawning as a sign of Satan entering the body,
and sneezing as a sign of his leaving the
body. Assas-bou-Malek and others all date
this opinion back to the Prophet: "The
Prophet said that Satan endeavours to
distract the faithful in prayer. This is
Allah's way of testing them. One way Satan
distracts the faithful is by dominating their
thoughts, infiltrating their minds during
prayer. Another way is by making them yawn to
divert attention away from their prayers. The
Prophet told us that yawning is prompted by
Satan and gave us the order to avoid it
whenever possible. When it becomes
inevitable, we must close our mouth with our
hand." [3].
We recently came across this question on
a website: "I am a 22-year-old devout
practising Muslim with a problem I hope to
overcome with Allah's help and your advice.
As soon as I begin my prayers, I start
yawning involuntarily. And this continues
even when I recite the Throne Verse. I really
don't know why I'm yawning dozens of times,
over and over, during a single prayer. I hope
you can shed some light on my problem."
Saintyves also writes: "According to thn
Battal, attributing yawning to Satan means he
wants us to yawn and takes pleasure in it; he
enjoys this disfiguring behaviour because it
makes men look ridiculous." As to putting a
hand over the mouth, this gesture applies
when the mouth is already open, as well as
when it is stifi closed, "because Satan
enters...". Instead of the hand, apiece of
clothing or any other object may be used. The
fear of Satan entering the body is linked to
the fear of possession, which explains why
this gesture is demanded of the faithful
during prayer [4]. W. Seuntjens call
this idea : the demonic rationale of yawning
etiquette [5]. Moroccans would place
their hand in front of their gaping mouth
because otherwise, it was belived, the devil
would urinate into their mouth.
In India
In India, "bhuts" (spirits) are believed
to prefer entering the body through the
mouth. Yawning is therefore dangerous,
because it entails two kinds of risks: either
bhuts wifi penetrate the body through the
throat, or a part of the soul might escape.
Since it would be very difficult to
recapture, the recommended practice is to put
a hand in front of one's mouth and say
"Narayan!" (Good God!), or snap one's fingers
to scare the bad spirit away
[3].
In Ancient Mayan civilization, yawning
was thought to indicate subconscious sexual
desires. In the same way, W. Seuntjens argues
an hypothesis that yawning has an erotic
side. He found that both the "yawn" and the
"stretch" of the stretch-yawn syndrome are
semantically and etymologically associated
with "desire" and "longing for". In several
proverbs and sayings yawning, and especially
contagious yawning, is interpreted as a clue
of something more than just sympathy, that
is, as a sign of being in love. Yawning was
both linked with acedia-boredom and with
luxuria (lechery) and passion. As a
non-verbal behavior the yawn was found to
figure in the courtship process. That this is
not a purely recent or western phenomenon was
illustrated by passages from ancient Indian
literature [6].
In Europe
Around 590 AD, during the times of Pope
Gregory the Great, a bubonic plague epidemic
raged through Europe, decimating the
population and inspiring numerous
superstitions: "Yawning was fatal then, and
the habit of signing the cross in front of
the mouth originated during the times of the
plague. (...) There was a plague they called
inguinal, because a bubo appeared in the
groins, causing men to die suddenly in the
streets, in their houses, at play, during a
meal. Their souls left their bodies when they
sneezed or yawned. This is why we said 'God
bless you' to those who sneezed. Those who
yawned made the sign of the cross over their
mouths" [7]. Even the sceptical
Michel de Montaigne conced that he made the
sign of the cross before his mouth while
yawning, given evidence for the education's
power. In Austria, in the case of a yawning
baby who was not able to perform the sign of
the cross, an older person would perform this
gesture in front of the in&nt's mouth in
order to prevent illness ans bad luck.
It is possible that the love of perfumes
in the royal European courts in the 17th and
18th centuries had its origins in the
necessity to conceal poor body hygiene.
Placing one's hand in front of the mouth
during yawning was helpful in hiding
appalling oral conditions and reducing the
expiration of nauseating odours. In a 2004
editorial for the British Medical Journal, G
Dunea was surprised to see medical students
yawning frequently as they waited for their
lecturer; moreover, 67.5% of the time they
did not cover their mouths with their hands.
He suggested this allowed students to avoid
bacterial contamination of their palms,
ironically adding that it is undoubtedly
better to let others marvel at your tonsils
than to risk injuring your elbow !
[8].
In medicine
In his treatise on wind, De flatibus
liber, Hippocrates (1595) noted that "the
continual yawning of apoplectics proves that
air is the cause of apoplexies", thereby
confirming his theory that "wind is the cause
of all diseases" [9]. In 1739,
Hermann Boerhaave, in his Praelectiones
academicae, explains that "yawning and
pandiculation favour the suitable
distribution of spiritus in all the muscles
and unblock the vessels of which sleep or
rest may have slowed the functions", and that
their action fights "against the excessive
pre-eminence of the flexor muscles and
returns everything to its place"
[10]. In his 1755 book De
perspiratione insensibii, Johan de Gorter was
the first to describe yawning as accelerating
blood flow, supposedly to improve the
oxygenation of the brain, in response to
cerebral anaemia [11]. Well into the
20th century, there were regular references
to this notion, even though it had never been
demonstrated. Even someone as knowledgeable
and inquisitive as JM Charcot repeated this
maxim without any critical analysis in his
Leçons du Mardi à la
Salpêtrière in 1888
[12]. The inaccuracy of this
hypothesis was formally shown by Provine,
Tate and Geldmacher in 1987 [13].
They had their subjects inhale air with
higher than normal levels of C02 (3-5% vs.
<0.5%). In response, the subjects'
breathing rates increased, but they did not
yawn. Likewise, when the subjects inhaled
pure oxygen, there was no inhibition of
spontaneous yawning at normal rates. Hence
yawning is not aphysioloca1 reflex to improve
cerebral oxygenation.
Boerhaave H.
Praelectiones academicae in proprias
institutiones rei medicae. 1741-1745
Gottingae. A. Vandenhoeck (imp.) 4
vol.
Charcot JM.
Leçons du lardi à La
Salpêtrière. Bureaux du
Progrès Médical et Delahaye A.
Ed. Paris 1887.
de Gorter J. De
perspiratione insensibili. Patavii. 1755. J.
Manfrè. 328p.
Dunea G. On covering
one's mouth (when yawning). BMJ.
2004;328(7445):963.
El Bokhâri. Les
traditions islamiques (traduites de l'arabe
avec notes et index par O. Houdas et W.
Marçais). Paris. Imprimerie Nationale,
1903-1914. tome IV, 211-213.
Guggisberg AG, Mathis
J, Herrmann US, Hess CW. The functional
relationship between yawning and vigilance.
Behav Brain Res.
2007;179(1):159-166.
